Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Mass. cuts backlog on TDI-related refund claims


The Massachusetts Department of Revenue said today that it has been able to significantly reduce the overall backlog of abatement claims involving Rhode Island's Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) tax by reassigning staff and adding a Saturday shift. As a result, the agency anticipates that most of the claims will be processed by the end of November.

The agency said it received more than 44,000 associated claims. "Since this influx of claims increased our normal annual volume by more than one-third, a backlog resulted and abatement processing was delayed.  Please note that many of the claims received were filed on paper, and paper forms always take longer to process than electronically filed claims," the agency said.

The issue generally involves Massachusetts residents who work in private-sector jobs in Rhode Island and pay TDI tax. When filling out their Massachusetts resident returns, they're generally allowed to claim a credit for taxes paid to Rhode Island. But do TDI taxes count for purposes of the calculation? Yes, the agency said earlier this year. In response, thousands of taxpayers filed claims for refunds, also known as abatements.